Political disagreement about the role of the state, the expense of reform and our unwillingness to confront ageing are at the root of the problem
A confidential No 10 memo on (not) reforming social care reads: “The prime minister agreed that this seemed the right course, but noted that careful thought needed to be given to the presentation in order to avoid charges that the government had pulled back from its original commitments on long-term care.”
That’s not a recent leak: it was from 1996, and shows how far back political failure on social care stretches. Politicians have not incurred any penalties for shirking this responsibility. In fact, the only leader who has really been burned by it is Theresa May – and that’s because she tried to do the right thing and be honest with the public about the cost in the 2017 election.
The past three decades have seen many attempts to reform social care. They all had different solutions and all collapsed in slightly different ways. But there are three things that the failures have had in common.
